Kate Wagner

Architecture Critic

@mcmansionhell

Kate Wagner is The Nation’s architecture critic and a journalist based in Chicago and Ljubljana, Slovenia.

What Happened to the 21st-Century City?

What Happened to the 21st-Century City? What Happened to the 21st-Century City?

And how we can save it.

Mar 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wagner

Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever

Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever Urban Surveillance Is More Menacing Than Ever

Cameras aren’t just monitoring us in public—now they’re actually yelling at us.

Feb 16, 2024 / Column / Kate Wagner

Left: Gaza City’s Omari Mosque after Israeli bombardment. Right: A Palestinian man reading in the courtyard of the same mosque last spring.

What Israel’s Destruction of the Great Omari Mosque Means What Israel’s Destruction of the Great Omari Mosque Means

Yes, it’s a crime against cultural heritage. But more importantly, it’s part of a campaign of total annihilation.

Jan 24, 2024 / Column / Kate Wagner

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

There’s something very feudal about his massive doomsday bunker.

Dec 22, 2023 / Kate Wagner

A boy searches through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine Architects Must Refuse to Profit From the Ruins of Palestine

Gaza is a site of human tragedy, not a prize of war.

Nov 14, 2023 / Column / Kate Wagner

In Defense of Homeownership

In Defense of Homeownership In Defense of Homeownership

It’s been blamed for everything from NIMBYism to urban sprawl. So why do I still want in?

Oct 18, 2023 / Column / Kate Wagner

A person pushes a barricade floating on a flooded street amid a coastal storm on September 29, 2023, in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y..

What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet? What Good Is Architecture on a Drowning Planet?

We need political solutions to climate emergencies, not design solutions.

Oct 6, 2023 / Kate Wagner

Why Houses Don’t Look Like Houses Anymore

Why Houses Don’t Look Like Houses Anymore Why Houses Don’t Look Like Houses Anymore

Aggregated real estate listings like Zillow have distorted our understanding of what makes a house a home.

Sep 19, 2023 / Column / Kate Wagner

A “For Lease” sign on a storefront in the Loop neighborhood of Chicago on Friday, May 12, 2023.

On Gentrification, We Don’t Know What We’re Talking About On Gentrification, We Don’t Know What We’re Talking About

Rather than understand gentrification as a systemic issue, the term has simply become an insult people throw around. Rather than understand gentrification as a systemic issue, the...

Sep 5, 2023 / Editorial / Kate Wagner

Renowned architect David Adjaye

Architecture’s Labor Problem Architecture’s Labor Problem

The field tolerates misogyny, racism, and worker exploitation. No wonder it produced David Adjaye.

Jul 31, 2023 / Kate Wagner

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